The Deal with North Korea

I haven't quite finished digesting all the news from yesterday, but I've seen enough reaction in the conservative press to know that there is some disappointment with the deal struck with North Korea. I think we should be wary of any big diplomatic initiatives struck at the end of a presidency; Mr. Bush may be thinking of his legacy more than tough geo-strategy, and those results could be regrettable. That said, The Bush Administration has been hard at work on this issue for years, and their North Korean interlocutors know that when another administration comes into power, they may have to start again at square one. One should never let "perfect" be the enemy of "good enough", and this deal may just be "good enough". It certainly contains no irreversible concessions on our part, a feature that may indeed become more important as we see how things in Pyongyang evolve.